Battle of the injury bug

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DANIEL WILSON -- Sun Media

Sep 14, 2007

, Last Updated: 9:32 AM ET

Injuries and inconsistent play have made a mess of both the B.C. Lions and the Toronto Argonauts quarterbacks corps, a theme that will be quite evident when the two brothers of QB misfortune meet tomorrow at B.C. Place.

The Lions will be led by third-string QB Jarious Jackson, while on the other side of the field, back-up QB at the start of the season, Michael Bishop, will be calling plays for the Argos.

"It's a quarterback league and I think just trying to prepare mentally for each quarterback is kind of tough," said defensive back Barron Miles. "You have to take it in stride and just do your basic reads that you normally do and apply them to all the quarterbacks."

When the Lions and Argos opened the CFL regular season against each other, resulting in a 24-22 victory for B.C., little did they know that their next meeting would see a battle between second and third string quarterbacks.

In fact, the Argos have gone through four different starting quarterbacks this season in Allen, Bishop, Mike McMahon and Rocky Butler, who only signed with the team on July 16, after both Allen and Bishop went down.

The Lions on the other hand have used three pivots: Jackson, Dickenson, and Buck Pierce.

"We've kind of gone through the same situation here, but the difference is myself, I've been here for three years now, Buck's the same, and Dave's been here forever," said Jackson. "Their situation is totally different where they had to play totally inexperienced guys as far as CFL play goes and I think that's been the biggest difference between their team and ours."

With injuries to Dickenson and Pierce, Jackson was thrown into the mix and thinks he has used his opportunity to lead the Lions well.

"It's given me an opportunity to play, an opportunity to get live reps in games that count and not just pre-season or practice," said Jackson. "For me personally, I've just been trying to manage the team from a quarterback standpoint offensively and try to limit turnovers and just continue to light up the board and put points on the board. You want to be smart and make smart decisions with the football because you touch the football every play that you have it offensively."

Miles wraps things up, saying it doesn't matter who is on the opposite side of the field.

"All you do is prepare each week and let it unfold," he said. "When the game comes, then you know who you're facing."